Poll shows internet trends

Poll shows internet trends

Internet users in Thailand are mostly interested in checking lottery results and they spent 11 hours and 25 minutes a day on average surfing the web last year, according to a new survey.

The results of the survey on the behaviour of internet users last year was released yesterday by the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA).

Facebook was the No 1 social media platform with 98% of internet users regularly loading it up while Google ranked as the top search engine with 556 million hits.

The numbers were disclosed at a discussion titled "Trends and Tweets" organised remotely by the Thai Media Fund (TMF). The survey was commissioned under the TMF's Media Alert campaign, which raises awareness about the importance of internet literacy and use of the internet.

TMF manager Thanakorn Srisuksai said a study from April to June this year showed that on Google Trends most people searched for lottery results, followed by sports-related information and updates on the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Facebook Trends, the three most heavily searched sections were lifestyle, the Covid-19 situation and entertainment news.

The TMF was interested in looking at online activities and how people communicate using the internet as well as internet users' changing emotions. It plans to use the findings for projects aimed at making social media safer and more constructive, it said.

As for Twitter, messages posted on the platform were largely negative. Many tweets tried to pin the blame on other people or the government or simply air criticism about them.

Pijitra Suppasawatkul, a communications expert at Chulalongkorn University, said the study also found that the same person tends to react differently on different social media platforms. They also show varying moods and emotions, depending on the platform.

Since the onset of the third outbreak of Covid-19 in April, searches for information related to the pandemic, particularly the Sinovac vaccine, have steadily increased, according to the academic.

In June, social media users paid most attention to political unrest, which was intensifying at the time.

She said people should be wary of comments posted on social media that could break the law, fake internet user accounts, and fake news.

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